When Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7 it put in place a number of prerequisites regarding the minimum spec required to run it on a smartphone. Those requirements have seen many such handsets ship with 1GHz Qualcomm chip. That won’t be the case for Nokia when it starts shipping Windows Phone 8 devices, however. Anyone picking up a Nokia Windows phone can expect a choice.

STMicroelectronics’ Carlo Bozotti has announced that when the Nokia Windows Phone 8 handsets appear next year, some of them will be running the ST-Ericsson Novathor U8500 smartphone platform. That consists of a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and an ARM Mali 400 GPU.

The first Nokia Windows Phone 8 handset using an ST-Ericsson solution may run on an older version of the U8500 platform suggesting it could contain a Cortex-A8 processor, but future Windows 8 phones will move to the more up-to-date platform and speedier chip.

Using an ST-Ericsson solution instead of a Qualcomm chip may allow the Nokia handsets to differentiate themselves in the performance and feature stakes. But Nokia is expected to use two chip solutions at launch, with the other one being Qualcomm according to a Nokia spokesperson. Is the company playing it safe by using that chip as well as the U8500 platform?

Regardless of which chips Nokia ends up using, the first Windows Phone 8 handsets need to be market leading if the company wants to get its mobile business back on track.